The module scope

The directory name of the current module. This is the same as the path.dirname() of the __filename.

Example: running node example.js from /Users/mjr

console.log(__dirname);
// Prints: /Users/mjr
console.log(path.dirname(__filename));
// Prints: /Users/mjr

The file name of the current module. This is the current module file's absolute path with symlinks resolved.

For a main program this is not necessarily the same as the file name used in the command line.

See __dirname for the directory name of the current module.

Examples:

Running node example.js from /Users/mjr

console.log(__filename);
// Prints: /Users/mjr/example.js
console.log(__dirname);
// Prints: /Users/mjr

Given two modules: a and b, where b is a dependency of a and there is a directory structure of:

• /Users/mjr/app/a.js
• /Users/mjr/app/node_modules/b/b.js

References to __filename within b.js will return /Users/mjr/app/node_modules/b/b.js while references to __filename within a.js will return /Users/mjr/app/a.js.

A reference to the module.exports that is shorter to type. See the section about the exports shortcut for details on when to use exports and when to use module.exports.

A reference to the current module, see the section about the module object. In particular, module.exports is used for defining what a module exports and makes available through require().

require(id): any

Used to import modules, JSON, and local files. Modules can be imported from node_modules. Local modules and JSON files can be imported using a relative path (e.g. ./, ./foo, ./bar/baz, ../foo) that will be resolved against the directory named by __dirname (if defined) or the current working directory. The relative paths of POSIX style are resolved in an OS independent fashion, meaning that the examples above will work on Windows in the same way they would on Unix systems.

// Importing a local module with a path relative to the `__dirname` or current
// working directory. (On Windows, this would resolve to .\path\myLocalModule.)
const myLocalModule = require('./path/myLocalModule');

// Importing a JSON file:
const jsonData = require('./path/filename.json');

// Importing a module from node_modules or Node.js built-in module:
const crypto = require('node:crypto');

Modules are cached in this object when they are required. By deleting a key value from this object, the next require will reload the module. This does not apply to native addons, for which reloading will result in an error.

Adding or replacing entries is also possible. This cache is checked before built-in modules and if a name matching a built-in module is added to the cache, only node:-prefixed require calls are going to receive the built-in module. Use with care!

const assert = require('node:assert');
const realFs = require('node:fs');

const fakeFs = {};
require.cache.fs = { exports: fakeFs };

assert.strictEqual(require('fs'), fakeFs);
assert.strictEqual(require('node:fs'), realFs);

Instruct require on how to handle certain file extensions.

Process files with the extension .sjs as .js:

require.extensions['.sjs'] = require.extensions['.js'];

Deprecated. In the past, this list has been used to load non-JavaScript modules into Node.js by compiling them on-demand. However, in practice, there are much better ways to do this, such as loading modules via some other Node.js program, or compiling them to JavaScript ahead of time.

Avoid using require.extensions. Use could cause subtle bugs and resolving the extensions gets slower with each registered extension.

The Module object representing the entry script loaded when the Node.js process launched, or undefined if the entry point of the program is not a CommonJS module. See "Accessing the main module".

In entry.js script:

console.log(require.main);

node entry.js

Module {
  id: '.',
  path: '/absolute/path/to',
  exports: {},
  filename: '/absolute/path/to/entry.js',
  loaded: false,
  children: [],
  paths:
   [ '/absolute/path/to/node_modules',
     '/absolute/path/node_modules',
     '/absolute/node_modules',
     '/node_modules' ] }

require.resolve(request, options?): string

Use the internal require() machinery to look up the location of a module, but rather than loading the module, just return the resolved filename.

If the module can not be found, a MODULE_NOT_FOUND error is thrown.

require.resolve.paths(request): string[] | null

Returns an array containing the paths searched during resolution of request or null if the request string references a core module, for example http or fs.